(no subject)
lots of boring rambling.
summary: iap was fun. picking classes can be hard, but always ends up okay. birthdays can be fun and this one was.
iap.
i had a pretty good iap. i have trouble finishing pe classes during the semester because i almost certainly have a couple of days where i'm one of sick, tired, or overloaded with work. so i did two over iap. i took gymnastics for the second time and it was pretty fun, although i found it far less exciting than i did when i took it two years ago. i'm not strong/brave enough to really do that much, and i think the novelty of trying things out wore off. you can only try and fail things so many times before they become less exciting. the class was only supposed to meet six times, but for whatever reason the instructor decided to extend it from six to eight, which i was kind of grumpy about since it's more than the required number of minutes for pe credit, but one ended up cancelled for some random reason, and then the last class fell on one of the super snowy days and mit was actually closed for half of the day. now i'm just waiting and hoping i get credit. freshman year we only missed one class as allowed, but for weird reasons we didn't get credit. i'll actually protest it if we don't this year though.
the other pe class i took was a group excercise pass thingie. there were a lot of classes to choose from and you just had to take a total of 440 minutes of them. i tried a water aerobics class and a couple of kickboxing classes but ended up getting most of my minutes from various yoga classes just because they ended up being at better times. i spent most of the semester on my typical wake up at 3pm schedule, but a week before iap ended, i decided to start shifting around, staying up later and later until i was waking up at 7am. i've actually managed to wake up between 7am and 9am for the last two weeks which is weird for me, but i think i'm going to try to stick with.
i didn't do any classes over iap, but continued a research project from my lab class last semester for six units of credit. we just submitted a paper to the 2005 cognitive science conference which is super exciting. who knows if it will actually be accepted or not, but it's still fun to try and at least have a formal paper of some of my work, even if no more than five people ever read it.
reg day.
class schedules for spring come out in late november/early december. i fret over it for a few days but then settle on a probable schedule. registration day comes around and i freak out, start over, and have no idea what to take. i know it will happen, and it always does. so needless to say, reg day was very stressful and i now have add/drop forms to fill out.
classes.
brain lab: i entered the lottery, got the one i wanted, debated about it, and decided to drop it two hours before the first lab meeting. i think it might have been fun, but it also might have been lab reports, gross dead animals, and four hours straight.
clinical approach to the human brain: this seems pretty cool and worth the early morning start time. the lecturer is the president's husband, which is neat since it means we get to go to the president's house and hang out a couple of times during the semester. he's kind of soft spoken, but seems nice and eager to get to know us all.
linear algebra: i don't know why exactly i want to take this. it fits into my schedule nicely and doesn't seem like it'll be too difficult. and i guess i'll never give up on the memories of loving math. even after dropping two math classes here. i might make this pass fail... we'll see.
cognitive processes: i was going to take this, but then at the last minute i decided to hop on the t and head north.
adolescent development: same time as cognitive processes, but seems way more interesting. the professor seems nice and eager to make it a fun class. i'm frustrated because it was listed as two 1.5 hour classes but got changed to two 1 hour classes and a 1 hour section, which means an extra trip and a more broken up thursday or friday. but oh well.
anxiety disorders: i think this looks neat and even though it means half an hour at harvard with nothing to do, it still works out time wise pretty well. i don't have the prereq, but the professor said i could take it anyway. i hope i'm not in over my head, but it should be okay. it got good ratings last year so that seems like a good sign. i'm going tomorrow for the first time. i hope i like it.
introduction to human clinical investigation: this seminar looks awesome. and easy. and you get lunch. which is even more awesome.
birthday.
i'm twenty one now. that's old. i did not get drunk. i did not get any alcohol at all. unless you count the white wine in the pasta sauce at lunch. which you can't. because it doesn't count.
the hall took a trip to the white mountains area of new hampshire this weekend, so i had a really nice birthday. these are the first north america mountains i've seen. we tried to drive to the top of mount washington, but apparently the auto road is closed in winter and you have to pay a whole lot of money for them to drive you up there. we went for two short hikes that were really fun, except old cracked converse are not the best shoes for hiking in snow. we didn't plan well. after the second hike we went in an outdoor hot tub which felt awesome. i ate soo much food and candy this weekend i will explode soon almost certainly. last night i got two chocolate cakes and a birthday song which was neat.
i got some little presents: a barrel of monkeys from ben and a really really funny looking stuffed dinosaur that i made jonathan by me (i laughed so hard when i saw it that i cried. see below.) bethany got me mint chocolate chip pria bars which are possibly my favorite snack food in the world. mmmmmmm. the coolest present was from my mom... an mp3 player (30gb!) and some awesome headphones. during the car ride up when people were listening to music i didn't feel like hearing and talking about stuff i didn't feel like talking about, i listened to music and wasn't able to hear any of their noise. it was really nice! i still need to finish uploading all of my songs to it since i stopped half way through since we were leaving.
i don't want to go to school tomorrow.
oh, and meet stumpy, my new pet dinosaur:
summary: iap was fun. picking classes can be hard, but always ends up okay. birthdays can be fun and this one was.
iap.
i had a pretty good iap. i have trouble finishing pe classes during the semester because i almost certainly have a couple of days where i'm one of sick, tired, or overloaded with work. so i did two over iap. i took gymnastics for the second time and it was pretty fun, although i found it far less exciting than i did when i took it two years ago. i'm not strong/brave enough to really do that much, and i think the novelty of trying things out wore off. you can only try and fail things so many times before they become less exciting. the class was only supposed to meet six times, but for whatever reason the instructor decided to extend it from six to eight, which i was kind of grumpy about since it's more than the required number of minutes for pe credit, but one ended up cancelled for some random reason, and then the last class fell on one of the super snowy days and mit was actually closed for half of the day. now i'm just waiting and hoping i get credit. freshman year we only missed one class as allowed, but for weird reasons we didn't get credit. i'll actually protest it if we don't this year though.
the other pe class i took was a group excercise pass thingie. there were a lot of classes to choose from and you just had to take a total of 440 minutes of them. i tried a water aerobics class and a couple of kickboxing classes but ended up getting most of my minutes from various yoga classes just because they ended up being at better times. i spent most of the semester on my typical wake up at 3pm schedule, but a week before iap ended, i decided to start shifting around, staying up later and later until i was waking up at 7am. i've actually managed to wake up between 7am and 9am for the last two weeks which is weird for me, but i think i'm going to try to stick with.
i didn't do any classes over iap, but continued a research project from my lab class last semester for six units of credit. we just submitted a paper to the 2005 cognitive science conference which is super exciting. who knows if it will actually be accepted or not, but it's still fun to try and at least have a formal paper of some of my work, even if no more than five people ever read it.
reg day.
class schedules for spring come out in late november/early december. i fret over it for a few days but then settle on a probable schedule. registration day comes around and i freak out, start over, and have no idea what to take. i know it will happen, and it always does. so needless to say, reg day was very stressful and i now have add/drop forms to fill out.
classes.
brain lab: i entered the lottery, got the one i wanted, debated about it, and decided to drop it two hours before the first lab meeting. i think it might have been fun, but it also might have been lab reports, gross dead animals, and four hours straight.
clinical approach to the human brain: this seems pretty cool and worth the early morning start time. the lecturer is the president's husband, which is neat since it means we get to go to the president's house and hang out a couple of times during the semester. he's kind of soft spoken, but seems nice and eager to get to know us all.
linear algebra: i don't know why exactly i want to take this. it fits into my schedule nicely and doesn't seem like it'll be too difficult. and i guess i'll never give up on the memories of loving math. even after dropping two math classes here. i might make this pass fail... we'll see.
cognitive processes: i was going to take this, but then at the last minute i decided to hop on the t and head north.
adolescent development: same time as cognitive processes, but seems way more interesting. the professor seems nice and eager to make it a fun class. i'm frustrated because it was listed as two 1.5 hour classes but got changed to two 1 hour classes and a 1 hour section, which means an extra trip and a more broken up thursday or friday. but oh well.
anxiety disorders: i think this looks neat and even though it means half an hour at harvard with nothing to do, it still works out time wise pretty well. i don't have the prereq, but the professor said i could take it anyway. i hope i'm not in over my head, but it should be okay. it got good ratings last year so that seems like a good sign. i'm going tomorrow for the first time. i hope i like it.
introduction to human clinical investigation: this seminar looks awesome. and easy. and you get lunch. which is even more awesome.
birthday.
i'm twenty one now. that's old. i did not get drunk. i did not get any alcohol at all. unless you count the white wine in the pasta sauce at lunch. which you can't. because it doesn't count.
the hall took a trip to the white mountains area of new hampshire this weekend, so i had a really nice birthday. these are the first north america mountains i've seen. we tried to drive to the top of mount washington, but apparently the auto road is closed in winter and you have to pay a whole lot of money for them to drive you up there. we went for two short hikes that were really fun, except old cracked converse are not the best shoes for hiking in snow. we didn't plan well. after the second hike we went in an outdoor hot tub which felt awesome. i ate soo much food and candy this weekend i will explode soon almost certainly. last night i got two chocolate cakes and a birthday song which was neat.
i got some little presents: a barrel of monkeys from ben and a really really funny looking stuffed dinosaur that i made jonathan by me (i laughed so hard when i saw it that i cried. see below.) bethany got me mint chocolate chip pria bars which are possibly my favorite snack food in the world. mmmmmmm. the coolest present was from my mom... an mp3 player (30gb!) and some awesome headphones. during the car ride up when people were listening to music i didn't feel like hearing and talking about stuff i didn't feel like talking about, i listened to music and wasn't able to hear any of their noise. it was really nice! i still need to finish uploading all of my songs to it since i stopped half way through since we were leaving.
i don't want to go to school tomorrow.
oh, and meet stumpy, my new pet dinosaur: